Barclays PLC : EU : Commission To Present Amendments To Market Abuse Directive Wednesday
07/20/2012| 07:02am US/Eastern
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By Clare Connaghan
The European Commission said Friday that it will present proposed amendments to the market abuse directive next week in the wake of the Barclays PLC (BCS) Libor interest rate-fixing scandal.
The European Union's executive is expected to propose that any market manipulation of indexes is a criminal offense, Commission spokeswomen Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen said.
European Financial Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier and European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding will present the proposals next Wednesday.
The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and its European equivalent, Euribor, are at the center of one of the biggest financial scandals in recent years, as investigators in the U.S. and Europe focus on possible criminal acts at a number of the world's biggest banks.
In recent weeks U.K. bank Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to settle accusations by U.S. and U.K. authorities that it had attempted to manipulate Libor rates. Libor is composed of daily submissions from a group of leading banks that report their estimated cost of borrowing from one another.
Write to Clare Connaghan at clare.connaghan@dowjones.com
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